Auburn Football: 5 reasons Tigers will beat UCF in 2018 Peach Bowl

4. Auburn’s defense will bring it home

Note that the first point revolved around Auburn’s ability to keep up on offense. While Auburn isn’t quite on UCF’s level in terms of offensive production, they are head and shoulders above them in terms of defense. For example, while there’s a difference of 24 spots between UCF and Auburn in points per game, there’s a 43 spot difference between the two in points per game allowed.

Similarly, the Tigers are on a completely different planet when it comes to the yards per play they allow. While the Knights were 22 spots ahead of Auburn in yards per play, the Tigers come in 71 spots higher than the Knights in YPP allowed. Needless to say, there’s a significantly larger buffer between the two defenses than the two offenses.

As we’ll cover shortly, much of these stats are skewed due to strength of schedule. While there is a consensus that the SEC isn’t what it used to be, it’s still on a whole other level when compared to the AAC. Again, while UCF has posted some incredible numbers, stats aren’t always what they seem.